Before

After

Overview

Cocktail Party is a mobile app that allows you to search cocktail recipes. The database is large and has all types of drink variations. It also lets you save ingredients so that it can recommend recipes based on what you have in your library. The app is very useful for bartenders from career level to home use.

Here are some areas where I think there is the most room for improvement:

1. Carousel options don't function well

This is a great app but on entrance it can be a bit overwhelming. There is an opportunity to clean up the UI and elevate the usability of this page. The carousel is the first thing you see and the functionality should be better.

Recommendations

• To make this element more functional, I think putting the options into a container will let the user know these are clickable. Instead of changing pages on selection, these options should act the same as a filter and show appropriate drink options when selected.
• The carousel also has some options that are either redundant or don't house any information. These will be taken away to make the number of options smaller.

2. Drink recipes need a better save option.

When you find a recipe you enjoy, the save function is barely visible and you get access to it when you go into a recipe. You tend to either type it in search or scroll until you see it. Often times you may not remember the name of the drink so this creates a significant pain point.

Recommendations

• There needs to be a clear save or favorite option for recipes so that the user can effortlessly get back to. This will affect the tab bar as well since that would be the best place to add favorite recipes. In addition to a save option, I will also add a share option to send recipes to others. I will add a visible save and share option to both the drink page and recipe page.

3. Tab bar needs to be cleaned up.

The tab bar only has four tabs, but these tabs are redundant and could use some rearranging.

• The Drinks tab will remain but the other three should be tended to. Library and Add Stuff should be in the same place. You should be able to add from the Library since the ingredients you’re adding will go in the library.
• The settings tab only has an option to change measuring units and a few other options. This will go into the top bar next to the search bar in either a hamburger menu or tab.

Other Feedback

Outside of the three things listed, I notice some issues with hierarchy and UI.

Hierarchy

• Technically there is hierarchy, but it could definitely be better. The choices in font, size, and weight all make information blend together and sometimes can be unreadable. A sans serif typeface and some color contrast will transform the look.

Elements

• A fresh update to the icons, tab bar, and search fields will help make the app more usable by providing structure that will help the user navigate. The refresh button would also be changed into a pull down to refresh animation

New Drinks

• The new drink dropdown is only in use when it is updated. Instead of taking up space with a element that is barely in use, I could put a notification on the drinks tab and when selected all new drinks will populate with a indicator.